Redirects

A redirect sends anyone who visits an old page address straight to a new page. Without one, old links lead to a "page not found" error. With one, visitors land in the right place without noticing, and Google carries your old search ranking over to the new page.

When you need a redirect

• You moved from an old website. Your old pages had addresses like /about-us.html or /our-services. People have them bookmarked, other websites link to them, and Google lists them. Redirect each one to its new page.
• You changed a page's web address. If the page was already live, add a redirect from the old address to the new one.
• You deleted a page. Send its old address to the closest page you still have, like your home page or a similar service.

If we converted your old website for you, we added redirects for its pages already. Check the list and add anything that's missing.

You don't need a redirect for a brand-new page that was never live.

Add a redirect

1. Click Search & sharing in the left menu.
2. Scroll to Redirects.
3. Click Add redirect.
4. In Old address, type the old page address, like /about-us.html.
5. In Now goes to, pick the new page from Your pages.
6. Repeat for each old address.
7. Click Publish. Redirects start working once your site is live, not in the preview.

You can paste the full old link, like https://www.yourbusiness.com/about-us.html. When you click out of the box, it's trimmed to just the part after your domain, /about-us.html. That's all a redirect needs.

Now goes to can also point to another website. Choose Another website… and paste the link. This is handy if part of your business now lives somewhere else, like an online store.

Find your old addresses

If you're not sure which addresses your old website used:

• Open your old site, if it's still up, and click through each page. Copy the address from the browser bar.
• Search Google for site:yourbusiness.com to see the pages Google has listed.
• Look for links to your site in your Google Business Profile, social media pages and local directories.

Start with the pages people visit most: home, services, contact and about.

Change or remove a redirect

• Change: edit the Old address or pick a different page in Now goes to.
• Remove: click Remove redirect (the trash can) on its row.

Then click Publish.

Tips

• Old addresses must match exactly, including endings like .html or .php. If your old site used both /contact and /contact.html, add both.
• Spaces aren't allowed in a redirect. If an old address had a space in it, type %20 in place of each space.
• Don't redirect an address that's still one of your current pages. Visitors should reach that page normally.
• Each old address needs its own redirect. There's no way to redirect a whole folder of pages at once. If you have a lot of old pages, a work request can set them up for you.
• Redirects are one part of good search results. See Search and sharing for the rest.